Watchdog: Customs and Border Protection anti-terror unit investigated journalists

[Democide]

Watchdog; Federal anti-terror unit investigated journalists

11 December 2021

A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter, according to a federal watchdog. Yahoo News, which published an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Counter Network Division, queried records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress. Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine. “When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access too, ...

https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/watchdog-federal-anti-terror-unit-investigated-journalists/

 

[Democide]

Customs and Border Agents Spied on Journalists—the Latest Sign They Are Out of Control
Why you should be worried about CBP.

12 December 2021

Many Americans are likely unaware that Customs and Border Protection, a Homeland Security Department division with more than 60,000 employees, is engaged in a host of domestic law enforcement activities that are unrelated to its original mission of guarding borders and ports. CBP is the biggest law enforcement agency in the country, full of quasi-military units, with an ominously broad conception of its job. And it’s out of control, or at least it was under President Donald Trump, critics argue. On Friday, Yahoo News revealed that a previously unreported Inspector General report found that a CBP unit called the Counter ...

Customs and Border agents spied on journalists—the latest sign they are out of control

Why you should be worried about CBP.

www.motherjones.com

 

[Democide]

More Info Leaks About The CBP's Counter-Terrorism Division's Targeting Of Journalists

15 December 2021

For a few years now, information has come to light showing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been engaged in the sort of activity that's gotten other federal law enforcement agencies in trouble in the past: the targeting of journalists. To be clear, no law enforcement agency -- federal or otherwise -- should target a journalist unless the journalist is suspected of criminal activity. Journalists' sources may be suspected of criminal activity from time to time, but that does not justify the direct targeting of journalists to identify their sources. The First Amendment -- as interpreted in multiple court decisions ...

More Info Leaks About The CBP's Counter-Terrorism Division's Targeting Of Journalists

For a few years now, information has come to light showing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been engaged in the sort of activity that's gotten other federal law enforcement agencies in trouble in the past: the targeting of...

www.techdirt.com

 

[Democide]

Attract Government Attention and Get Your Name Run Through a 'Terrorist' Database
Offending the powerful can be dangerous in an increasingly authoritarian world.

15 December 2021

In 2021, it's unfortunately not surprising to learn about routine federal surveillance of people who attract official attention. We live, after all, at a moment when freedom looks haggard and unloved even in liberal democracies and a record number of journalists are behind bars. That the practice of running people's names through multiple government databases appears to be routine doesn't bode well for the United States, let alone the world beyond. "Documents obtained by Yahoo News, including an inspector general report that spans more than 500 pages" expose snooping by Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Counter Network Division, Jana Winter ...

Attract Government Attention and Get Your Name Run Through a ‘Terrorist’ Database

In 2021, it's unfortunately not surprising to learn about routine federal surveillance of people who attract official attention. We live,...

reason.com